PGN Collaborates With 3 Japanese Gas Companies To Work On Biometana Clean Energy

PT PGN Tbk, as Pertamina Gas Subholding, collaborated with three gas companies from Japan, namely Osaka Gas Co, Ltd (Daigas), JGC Holding Corporation (JGC), and Inpex Corporation and PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) to work on the biometana clean energy project.

The biometana comes from palm oil oil (POME) owned by PTPN.

"In this biomethane project from POME, PGN participated in supporting G to G relations in Asian countries to ensure supply security and energy affordability during the energy transition to achieve the carbon neutral target. In line with PGN's readiness to develop biomethanes whose utilization is equivalent to natural gas for various sectors," said PGN's Director of Strategy and Business Development Heru Setiawan in his statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, March 8.

The project follows up on the collaboration between PT Pertamina (Persero) as Holding Oil and Gas with Daigas, JGC, and Inpex in a joint study on clean energy projects in Indonesia.

In addition, it also realized the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) program, which was announced by President Joko Widodo and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the G20 Presidency series on November 14, 2022 in Bali.

The Japanese government has stated that it is ready to assist Indonesia in supporting the energy transition process in Indonesia, as part of the AZEC cooperation framework.

In the signing of the cooperation, PGN, Daigas, JGC, Inpex, and PTPN agreed to conduct a processing study into POME biometana or biogas supplied from PTPN which has a portfolio in the field of management, processing, and marketing of plantation products that focus on palm oil and rubber.

Heru also stated the readiness for the distribution of biomethanes that could use the PGN Group's pipeline and non-pipe gas network.

According to him, this collaboration will assist in accelerating biometana development in Indonesia.

With the portfolio of PTPN in processing palm oil, the study can be deepened at palm oil factories and POME processing plants, as required for bio-CNG production facilities as derivatives of POME and the manufacture of carbon or biosertificate loans.

Through this collaboration, Heru added, measurements can be made of chemical oxygen (COD) POME from palm oil mills to take into account the risk of decreasing annual biomethana production, so that it can be anticipated.

In addition, PGN also opens opportunities to cooperate with other business entities engaged in oil palm processing to increase the production capacity needed by the market.

"Biometana as one of the renewable energy that is more environmentally friendly, can replace fuel oil from fossils. Palm oil mill waste or POME contains materials that produce quite high methane emissions. So, PGN and partners are committed to optimizing this collaboration to turn POME into bioenergy, in order to increase the supply of clean energy in a sustainable manner," said Heru.